Rand Fishkin, at SEOmoz, recently published a blog post about the fact that he feels blogs that are more passionate or authentic seem to appear high in the search results even without having many backlinks or any strong SEO signals at all.
As a search engine optimizer, this is both frustrating and intriguing. How do seemingly random sites, that simply appear to be passionate about their subject matter, beat out other sites that are just as good (theoretically) and have more links pointing toward them?
Well, no one has an answer for this yet, other than the fact that Google is taking “quality” into account much more heavily now than they were in the past. But if that is the case, then blogs that have a lot of “passion” in them will generally do better than those without. So if you are trying to make money on your blog, how do you create passion? Here are a few tips you might want to try.
1) Find a subject you are passionate about
This may come as a no-brainer, but if you want to have a passionate blog, blog about something you are passionate about. There are tons of blogs out there about “hot” subjects written by people who don’t care a lick for the subject—those who are only out to make a buck off the high traffic that comes from a popular subject. And it comes across in the writing and site design. If you are naturally enthusiastic about something, it will come across naturally in your writing.
2) Be a fanatic
Have you ever visited the BlendTec website and its Will it Blend? web series? It’s a company that makes blenders, but they love it. And you can tell by the writing and enthusiasm they put into their website content. Whatever it is you are blogging about, be a fanatic about it. Your enthusiasm will be infectious.
3) Be sincere
Site visitors can sense insincerity before they even click on your link. If you are naturally interested in a topic and enjoy writing about it, your sincerity will come across. But if you are only blogging to blog, or creating thin linkbait simply as a means to drive traffic to your site, readers will sense that you don’t really care about your subject and click the Back button as quickly as possible.
4) Be vigorous
Passionate bloggers write and research vigorously. They know their subject matter and aren’t afraid to question conventional wisdom or meticulously dive into a controversy. They are confident about what they know and how to present it to others. Follow their example, and you’ll appear passionate to your readers as well.
5) Be regular
Do you want to appear more passionate about your subject? Blog about it on a regular basis. Passionate bloggers take every chance they get to write about their subject matter and publish regularly. On the other hand, have you ever visited a blog only to discover their latest post is six months old? That blogger, is obviously not passionate about their subject.
6) Become a resource
Passionate bloggers are less concerned about incoming/outgoing link ratios than they are about providing their readers with the resources and information they need to stay informed on a certain topic. If your blog is a resource for people who want to know more, with plenty of links to other good web sites, PDFs, and graphics, people will get the feeling you care more about your subject than your traffic, and they’ll respect you more for it. And Google may even recognize your passion and push you further north in the SERPs.
Be Passionate
All-in-all, Google is taking into account many more factors today than they were even a year ago. And many of these newer factors are hard to quantify, factors like “passion” or “quality.” The simple fact is, if you can come across as passionate and enthusiastic about your subject matter, not only will your readers trust you more, but so will Google.
This is a guest post by James Ged, you can check out the guidelines to guest post here.
Image Credit: Annie Mole
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